Educational spinning toy



July 3, 1956 L. B. AUSTING EDUCATIONAL SPINNING TOY Filed Jan. 15, 1955 Dw C Q 3 /BD 1 Aw M IN VEN TOR.

W7 A a 8 ML 1 EDUCATIONAL SPINNING TOY Lawrence B. Austing, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignor to Vulcan Corporation, Portsmouth, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application January 13, 1955, Serial No. 481,527

3 Claims. (CI. 88-16) This invention relates to improvements in educational spinning toys provided with a plurality of complementary, indicial bearing surfaces that are adapted to be whirled through the same circular path to effect composite or combined images on the retina of the eye of the child rotating the toy.

An important object of the invention is to provide in a toy of the character described a means whereby the complementary indicia on its various faces may be changed or altered in a simple manner which is educational as well as amusing to children. Specifically the indicia are selectively placed on detachable labels secured on each of the faces of the present spinning toy, said indicia comprising parts of letters of the alphabet arranged in particular manner to spell out, when the toy is spun, the word of a familiar object selected by a child. To attain this end the parts of letters on one face of the toy are rotatively aligned with complementary parts of the same letters on another face thereof such that the appearance of the toy, when stationary, gives no indication as to the word; this intelligence becoming apparent only when the toy is rotated rapidly causing the complementary parts of the letters to appear as if combined and thus spelling out the selected word.

Another object of the invention is to provide a relatively simplified and novel device for carrying out the foregoing objectives which may be utilized by children.

These and other objects of the invention will be apparent from the following specification taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing which illustrates the preferred embodiment of my invention, and in which:

Fig. 1 is a fragmental, perspective View of my inven-' tion embodied in a spinning toy.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged section taken laterally through the central portion of the toy shown in Fig. 2, illustrating the relative position of the users eye whilst spinning it.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of one of the prepared indicia bearing labels to be secured to one of the faces of the toy shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of a label prepared for complementary use with the label shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a representation of the visual effect produced by spinning the toy carrying on its various faces the labels shown in Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawings.

Fig. 6 is a fragmental, plan view of a template that may be used in preparing the labels of Figs. 3 and 4.

The spinning toy comprises a holder body 10 preferably having two intersecting discs 11 and 12 joined together on a common diameter to provide a plurality of angularly positioned, semi-circular surfaces on the holder body. These discs may be secured together in any suitable manner such as by forming a radial slot in each disc, each slot extending from the periphery of its respective disc to the center thereof, the discs being assembled by sliding one disc over the other at right angles with the slots in each disc straddling the body of the other disc;

fnited States Patent 0 j 2,752,816 Patented July 3, 1956 *2 all as set forth in a copending application of Giese et al., filed April 26, 1954 and given Serial Number 425,446.

A pair of cord receiving holes 13 and 14 are formed through the disc 11, said holes being parallel to the common diameter of the assembled discs and equispaced on opposite sides of the said diameter. A cord loop 15 has its reaches extending through the holes 13 and 14 to provide opposed hand engaging end portions 16 and 17 which may be alternately twisted in one direction and then the other. By intermittently pulling outwardly on the alternately twisted cord ends the toy body is caused to rotate in alternate directions and at comparatively high speeds. During spinning of the toy the semi-circular surfaces of the body 10 that are formed on the intersecting discs 11 and 12 move through the same circular path, it being noted with respect to Fig. 2 that the surfaces facing counterclocltwise will be consecutively observed when the operators eye 18 is directed toward the top half of the spinning toy. In like manner the body surfaces facing clockwise will be consecutively seen when the eye observes the lower half of the spinning toy during rotation of the toy body in either direction.

The surfaces of the body 10 facing in the same direction are adapted to carry complementary parts of letters, sym: bols or the like, all rotatively aligned in prearranged positions to form a composite, intelligible image when the body is spun in the manner heretofore described. To this end a part of each letter spelling out an intelligible word or words, such as indicia 19, is applied to the semi-circular face 20 of disc 11 and a complementary part of the said letters, such as indicia 21, is applied to the face 22 of disc 12 so that when the body is spun by the cord 15 the complementary letters will appear to the eye as if combined and to specl out an intelligible word or words.

With reference to Figs. 3-6 of the drawings an important part of this invention is the provision of a simplified means for applying any desired combination of complementary letters to the faces of my toy to spell out desired words or phrases, said means comprising a number of identical, semi-circularly shaped labels 23 made of writing paper, or the like, which have the exact outline of the surfaces formed on the body of the spinning toy by the intersecting relationship of the discs 11. and 12. The labels are secured to selected faces by means of a pressure sensitive adhesive preparation applied to one side thereof. The exposed sides of the labels have lightly printed thereon a series of crosslines 24 and 25 which are positioned in the same places on all the labels thus forming reference squares 26 which align with each other when the labels are secured in place on the semi-circular surfaces of the body 10.

In order to position complementary parts of letters in their proper places in the reference squares 26 of the various labels I provide a stencil or template 27 that has imprinted thereon in a horizontal row the letters of the alphabet. Directly under each letter are two punch out portions 29 and 30 which are guides for forming the complementary parts of the letter appearing directly above them On the stencil. The margins of the punched out portions that are to be followed with a scribing implement have darkened lines 3t) beside them to aid the user in determining the edges to follow with a scribing implement in applying the selected part of a letter to the proper reference square 26. A guide for centering each complementary portion of a letter to be formed in its proper place on the reference square 26 takes the form of a slot 31 formed through the stencil, said slot being lined up with the cross lines 25 on the labels, whilst marks 32 imprinted on the stencil beside the slots are adapted to be lined up with the cross lines 24 on said labels.

Thus when it is desired to spell out the phrase A Bad Dog" on the spinning toy, at least one label is provided with indicia like that shown in Fig. 3 and at least one label is prepared like that shown in Fig. 4. The template 27 is used for the purpose of applying the complementary parts of the indicia to the labels at their proper places, the template being placed upon the label on a selected square and the complementary part of a desired letter applied to a reference square by use of the slot 31 and marks 32. The outline of the letter part indicated by lines 30 are then followed with pencil or crayon so that the required parts of the indicia appear on each of the labels. The labels are then secured to the surfaces of the body 10 and the toy spun by the twisted cord thus giving the appearance to the eye of the spelled out phrase that is substantially as illustrated in Fig. 6 of the drawing.

What is claimed is:

1. A spinning toy comprising a body member having a plurality of angularly disposed and identically shaped surfaces, manual actuating means connected to the body member to rotate all the surfaces in a direction at right angles to said surfaces and through the same circular path, a plurality of identical writing paper labels each having the exact shape of the body surfaces and each provided with a series of cross lines forming a number of reference squares on one surface thereof, parts of indicia located in the reference squares of at least one label, complementary parts of said indicia located in the corresponding reference squares of at least one other label, and adhesive means on the opposed surfaces of the complementary indicia bearing labels for securing said labels to each of the surfaces of the body member that face in one direction whereby spinning of the body member will cause the complementary parts of the indicia on all the labels secured thereto to appear as if combined and produce an intelligible composite visual effect on the eye of an observer.

2. A spinning toy as set forth in claim 1 characterized by the fact that the adhesive means is pressure sensitive whereby the labels may be pressed into position on the respective surfaces of the body member and manually pulled away from their adhesively secured positions thereon.

3. A spinning toy as set forth in claim Zfurther characterized by the fact that the indicia in the reference squares are complementary parts of letters of the alphabet.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 132,676 Layman Oct. 29, 1872 1,793,645 Smetak Feb. 24, 193-1 1,945,789 Revis Feb. 6, 1934 2,154,031 Bunting Apr. 11, 1939 

